High flyers

15 May 2013

Seventeen members of the Hobart Men’s Probus Club recently attended a lecture on Oktokopters by Professor Arko Lucieer from the School of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Tasmania. 

An Oktokopter is a remotely controlled helicopter platform fitted with eight engines, a GPS system and a camera that captures multi-spectral infrared images on four wavebands. They are used to monitor and aid precision agriculture.  

A live demonstration on the university oval showed members the versatility and enormous potential yet to be exploited and marketed. It was quite amusing to see grown men feeling the urge to have a turn to control the highflying Oktokopter.